consciousness

spiritualgrowthadventure

World Changes Affect the Spirit of Countries

When someone does something perceived as shocking or an attack, there is often a reaction, a response coming from anger and fear, and there can be a desire to attack back.
The anger and fear blinds people to a view of possibilities in the situation.
Doing the unusual and different, and becoming calm, taking the energy Up, meditating, feeling a place of peace, calmness and being centred, and taking the situation Up to a place of love, a place of inspiration, opens up the possibilities and the solutions. Up and Up, like going to a mountain top with a good view in the sunshine.
Each country in the world has a unique spirit that defines that country. Just as people’s energy goes up and down, so too does a country’s spirit. Just as a person’s spirit can evolve and develop, so too can a country’s. The spirit of a country in the long ago will be different to how it is now. This will be different to how the spirit will be in the future.
At the moment in this Earth, a huge amount of spiritual energy is coming in. The effect this has on countries is to bring up old energy and old spirit for clearing and removal. At the same time, the seeds of new energy are planted, usually in unexpected places, and these seeds grow. Sometimes the old spirit fades away, sometimes there is a clash with the new. So the old structures and ways of doing things are breaking down and going, and the “new” can emerge.
A person can be happy if they have a lot or some independence, an ability to be self-sufficient, and enough good friends and family. Plus if they have a sense of identity and a sense of purpose and belonging.
Countries should be similar. Each country should be self-sufficient and resilient. They should not be dependent on other countries. They should not be easily exploited or interfered with by other countries or their leaders who do not have that country’s best interests at heart. They shouldn’t be easily interfered with by any big businesses, or groups of rich people who can exert power for their own ends.
Leaders of some countries have failed in looking after the interests of their countries for decades, and they have sleep-walked into situations that are unhealthy for their countries and for the people who live in their country.
The spirit of a country flourishes when it has a happy identity and has confidence in itself. It flourishes when it has a strong internal economy, when it is resilient, creative and innovative, creating what the country needs. It flourishes when its people are positive and happy, with their own confident sense of identity, purpose and belonging, and mutual respect is part of life. It flourishes when it is able to protect its interests and prevent others from taking advantage of the country. The spirit of a country flourishes when it links with countries who have a mutual, positive respect, goodwill, and shared interests that benefit all levels of society, and not just an elite.
By the same token, this applies to regions within countries.
I’m writing this now because Trump has brought in tariffs for many countries in the world and has created shock waves which countries have to adapt to. Typically some leaders will do the usual and react with anger. But once they get over this, they may be able to sense ways in which to make their countries and the regions within resilient, creative, vibrant and prosperous, and protected from destabilising external interference.
The tariffs can have many unforeseen effects, which can be beneficial for countries.
Countries, and their leaders and innovators have rapidly been brought to a point where the only direction is to go forward and change. The old interactions between countries have gone.
The spiritual energy coming into this planet is demanding change. It is powerful. Some people will be able to see and sense the opportunities, while others will be dragged howling in disbelief. Whichever way, change will happen. Time for new ways.
The spiritual energy coming in can be supportive for those that go with its flow, and pushy for those that want to keep to the old ways.

© 2025 Jonathan Barber

Here is a way to intuitively tune into the energy of a country:

Countries: Fear and Love and Triangles of Energy
spiritualgrowthadventure

Your Heart Centre and your Spiritual Path

People move along their spiritual paths at different speeds. We are all naturally in a form that supports us developing spiritually: souls within a physical body (within an astral body and a mental body). Our karma propels us through our own unique path.

At the same time as going through our karmic journey, lifetime after lifetime, we go through our spiritual journey on our unique spiritual path.

Sometimes people go backwards for a while on their spiritual path, by being selfish, or viscious and tyrannical, by being greedy, by being hateful, by lying to themselves and others, by buying into glamour. There are lots of traps to slow people down on their spiritual path. Another way of putting it is that there are lots of tests to see if the soul and personality is ready to move forward, or if they need a lifetime or a hundred or so to do some learning before moving forward again.

People can go sideways on their spiritual path, or tread water, say, if they get caught up in a habit or a teaching that helps them behave the same way, day after day, and year after year, content as they are to avoid change. There’s no looking in the mirror, no self-reflection, no breaking out away from old rules or beliefs, no moving on. Some teachings and groups are like that, and if people try to change they get banished or punished for trying to go beyond the accepted norms.

There’s another way people go sideways these days. Screens. Attention and focus goes outwards. Some of the time, or a lot. Attention can also go outwards looking at what others are doing. Too much attention can be given to television, streamed programs and some podcasts, and the news, or people’s opinions.

Spiritual progress happens when at least some attention is given to what is going on inside oneself. Paying attention to your feelings, noticing your thoughts, and being calm and quiet on the inside is what is needed. This can come about in such simple ways like sitting outside with a cup of tea or coffee, going for a walk in Nature, sitting in a hot tub, or experiencing the period of time after being in the gym, or doing yoga, or swimming, or other exercise. Physical activities are also great ways to shift and get rid of negative energies and associated negative timelines.

Meditation is for some, the way to gain the awareness of their inner spiritual realm.

When a soul senses the opportunity to come into what will form into a body at conception, it comes into the heart centre. Here’s a clue. If you really want to connect with the soul, and with the Source, meditate on the heart centre, at least for part of a meditation practice. Where the heart leads, the mind follows.

The heart centre is to do with love (definitely not ego), it is connected to the Infinite, and following your heart is a good idea.

Meditation focused on the heart is effective, and can help you consider how best to love your self in practical ways and appreciate yoursel. It can help you consider how to love others in your unique way, including in the all-important practical ways. The same goes for treating the planet properly. And if you want a good quality purpose in life, the heart centre is the place to find it. The heart centre is where you can find peace. The energy of the heart centre influencing the mind is a powerful combination. Heart centre energy can help open up intuition and be on your best timeline. It can help people know how to be safe in a changing, and sometimes challenging world. (The mind worries, the heart loves.)

Focusing on your heart will really move you along your spiritual path.

spiritualgrowthadventure

The Planes of Consciousness, and their link to meditation

We live and have our being in this physical reality, which is part of Creation. As a soul when we incarnate in Creation for the very first time, we drop down from the Divine levels where we experienced Divine Light.

There are levels or planes of consciousness in Creation, in fact there are seven planes. The zeroth plane (0th) has the lowest level of consciousness, and as we go through the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th planes of consciousness, the level of consciousness increases. So the bottom of the zeroth plane, where souls come into Creation for the first time, has the very lowest level of consciousness. The top of the 6th plane has the highest level of consciousness in the 6th plane.

A soul comes into creation at the bottom of the zeroth plane and spends time as a mineral, as rock, and has the consciousness of a rock. After a while, the soul comes out of that existence, and goes into the experience of being a different kind of rock with a very minute increase in consciousness. So time and time again, the soul has different experiences in the mineral kingdom, going through different rock forms and then metal forms, and each time has a very minute increase in consciousness. This goes from 0.0 to 0.2 on the zeroth plane.

At about 0.2, the soul then comes out of the mineral kingdom, and starts on the many lifetimes in the plant kingdom, as some form of plant life. There is a pattern of a plant dying and the soul coming out of one form of plant life, to go into another form of plant life. On and on the soul goes through the plant kingdom, each time experiencing a very minute increase in consciousness and awareness. The plant kingdom goes from the 0.2 level of consciousness to the 0.4 level. As the soul experiences a death for the last time in the plant kingdom, the soul moves on to take a form in the animal kingdom.

The animal kingdom goes from 0.4 to 0.6, and the physical forms or bodies in this kingdom can support a higher level of consciousness and awareness than the plant form. (The kinds of forms in the animal kingdom change over time, which shows up as animals becoming extinct and new animal forms coming into existence. This happens to provide the right physical vehicle for the soul to experience Life and to support the soul’s level of consciousness. Everything changes.)

After many lives building consciousness on the zeroth plane, the soul has a first life as a human on the 1st plane of consciousness.

The quality of astral light, and mental light is quicker and a bit brighter on the 1st plane than the zeroth plane. The level of consciousness is higher than on the first plane.

After plenty of lives on the 1st plane of consciousness, the soul, now in human form, has a first life on the 2nd plane. The astral and mental light on the second plane is brighter than on the 1st plane. Also there is less astral light and more mental light, and the consciousness is quicker.

Physically it isn’t possible to say what plane someone is by looking at their body. It is all in the energy, and level of consciousness. Nor is there an obvious link to the job or role someone has in everyday life.

After enough lives on the 2nd plane of consciousness, the person dies and their soul moves on to form another human body and this time they are on the 3rd plane of consciousness. The level of Light and consciousness is higher on the 3rd plane than the second. There is little astral light and more mental light.

After more and more lives, a person will have lives on the 4th, then the 5th and in the 6th plane of consciousness. These are the mental planes of consciousness as there is only mental light and no astral light. The Light on these different planes have different qualities which show up in the inner lives and sometimes outer lives of the people on these planes. The Light on the sixth plane is dazzlingly bright. In these planes there is inner awareness of God.

At some point, a person near the top of the 6th plane will become God Realized with the help of a Perfect Master usually on the inner planes. Their consciousness then goes through a massive change so their consciousness is on the Divine levels.

This is all a very brief description of the planes of consciousness which all souls go through (so it isn’t about one soul being considered better than another soul as it is a journey all souls go on).

People on the different planes have different inner qualities to each other and will require different experiences. Usually souls / people build up karma through the 0th, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd planes of consciousness and then attempt to balance it all in the 4th, 5th and 6th.

All souls will radiate out energy and Light, and often this is to contribute energy and to offer something that has a healing effect which can help move other souls along. Take singers for instance. There are some singers on the 1st plane whose light and energy can have a positive effect on people on the zeroth plane. But not on people on the 2nd plane and above. There are a few singers on even the 5th plane who can sing and as their energy and Light goes out to the listeners, people on the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and 0th plane can be positively affected.

The same goes for musicians, artists, TV presenters, teachers, writers, people involved in films and so on. Everyone interacts with everyone else. (Healers and those with a spiritual teacher role will similarly effect others on lower planes than themselves, but not those on higher planes. Also, because someone is a healer or spiritual teacher does not mean to say they are on a high plane, and it is important to dispel that particular glamour.)

When a person meditates, they are in their aura, and so in their energy field. Some auras are bigger than others. But also, say if you are on the second plane, a meditation teacher on the 1st plane won’t be providing you with an energy field that can take you up. A meditation teacher on the 3rd plane or higher can do that, and the experience you have will be different to trying to meditate with a first plane teacher (who would be good for people on the zeroth plane). This applies to online meditation as well as meditation in the same physical location. Now if you get to meditate with someone like a Perfect Master, or someone who has a Perfect Master on the inner planes overshadowing them, or if they have an active Divine guide, then the sky’s the limit.

(This is just a very brief description of the planes of consciousness and what people are like on those planes and what their inner experiences are like, and how, like those on the 5th and 6th planes, affect everyone else on the planet. If you want to know more I would suggest checking out God Speaks by Meher Baba, which is now also available as a pdf download if you look online. This book is the go-to source, and also has a very nice energy (watch out!).)

Here’s a link to some notes about the planes of consciousness for souls coming into Creation.

Here’s a link to FAQs about meditation.

spiritualgrowthadventure

A Soul’s Journey down into Creation, and then back Up to God

Trying to talk about souls can be tricky, and fascinating at the same time. Souls originate on the Divine Journeys, in the Beyond, which is outside time, which is part of God. Souls are part of God. This is not a straightforward concept as it is so unlike our everyday reality.

When the Avatar comes down into creation every 400 to 700 years in major and minor incarnations, souls, or dropsouls follow the Avatar down through the Divine Journeys into creation (or are poached, which is another story). In creation, with its planes of consciousness (0th, 1st … 6th), there is time, and karma. As time goes by, creation is ever changing and developing, and souls grow as they journey through creation.

Souls fall over time, to the bottom of the zeroth plane, the slowest and least conscious plane. As souls fall, they experience a massive separation from the Divine, from God, and from their own true nature, and the Divine level of their consciousness. This is a shock that remains with the soul, even though their consciousness falls from this exalted state to zero; to a very slow, non-existent state. There remains a deep sadness and grief that is difficult to put a finger on.

Simultaneously, there is an aspect of the soul, outside time, that has experienced and completed everything on the inner planes and on the Divine Journeys. This is a tricky concept and it isn’t really necessary to understand it as it wouldn’t influence the journey of the soul in any case.

The You reading this, in creation, is the extension of soul energy, that is in time. The aspect of your soul on the Divine Journeys, will not be necessarily aware of what is going on with the personality you in creation, as the light is so captivating there. What this aspect of soul Up there is missing out on though is experience of life in creation, and the slow frequency light down here, particularly the dark of the zeroth plane, and also, emotion. Souls come down here to experience emotion.

Souls and divine beings that stay in the Divine Journeys have no idea of what the grand adventure we call life is like down here in creation.

They miss out on the journey down, and they miss out on the journey up the planes and the experiences they gain in this Illusion. Souls with an aspect of themselves down here get to experience the many lifetimes as rock and metal with the heating, flowing, crushing, and erosion, and so on, while having only infinitesimal consciousness.

Then there are the many lifetimes in plant form in the many different environments. They grow, use physical light, put down roots (or live off other plants and sometimes creatures), they can be eaten. Open to the sky they experience weather and starlight. Those in the water experience those environments. They experience long or short lives, fire, drought and so on. With flowers and blossoms they irradiate scents, colour and energy. (From an energy point of view, plants have a fascinating existence.) The consciousness level is a somewhat greater than a rock or metal.

Still on the zeroth plane of consciousness, the soul has many lifetimes in animal form; as worms, insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals. With each change of lifeform there is an incremental change in the level of consciousness. The form that a soul takes depends on the level of consciousness that needs to be experienced. A soul going through the many animal forms experiences a huge variety of conditions, and events that happen to them. They experience instincts and intelligence. They experience emotions (some scientists may disagree, but anyone who has spent time with animals or has a pet will know when an animal is happy or sad or scared, and so on). Animals experience being on their own and in other lives, living as part of a society or group. They eat, sometimes hunt, sometimes get eaten (alive!). Animals communicate and cooperate.

Then come the sub-human lives that are a cross-over point to being human on the zeroth plane. In all this, the soul grows in consciousness, and stores the accumulation of experiences in part of itself.

As a human, lifetime after lifetime up until the top of the third plane of consciousness, the soul builds karma, and then balances it or burns it off from then on up to the top of the sixth plane. As a human the soul gets to experience the full range of what it can mean to be a human being, from the darkest events to the most loving and light. The soul experiences life in a detached way, as it is still very much in the Divine Journeys, while the person down here will experience life through personality, spirit, and the accumulation of all those vast numbers of lifetimes that occurred from rock, plant, and animal upwards. So people can be incredibly animalistic in their thinking and behaviour as their animal past comes to the forefront. This is particularly so in a human lifetime that has a leaning to the Dark Lodge and the negative dark, rather than a lifetime leaning to the light or Light Lodge. Part of spirituality is diminishing or transforming the old animalistic heritage that is rather like very old baggage.

Meditation and doses of light really help here. However, to really appreciate what the light is like, and what Divine energies are like, being in the muck and the mud, and the pain and struggle that happens in creation, provides the contrast. Sometimes to know what something is like you need to experience the opposite. It also provides the crucible through which a soul gains the experience and learning, in the end, transforming it into its full beauty, and with quite a story to tell back on the Divine Journeys.

(re-edited from 2015)

 

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.

spiritualgrowthadventure

A Soul’s Journey down into Creation, and then back Up to God

Trying to talk about souls can be tricky, and fascinating at the same time. Souls originate on the Divine Journeys, in the Beyond, which is outside time. This is not a straightforward concept as it is so unlike our everyday reality.

When the Avatar comes down into creation every 400 to 700 years in major and minor incarnations, souls, or dropsouls follow the Avatar down through the Divine Journeys into creation (or are poached, which is another story). In creation, with its planes of consciousness (0th, 1st … 6th), there is time, and karma. As time goes by, creation is ever changing and developing, and souls grow as they journey in creation.

Souls fall over time, to the bottom of the zeroth plane, the slowest and least conscious plane. As souls fall, they experience a massive separation from the Divine, from God, and from their own true nature, and the Divine level of their consciousness. This is a shock that remains with the soul, even though their consciousness falls from this exalted state to zero; to a very slow, non-existent state. There remains a deep sadness and grief, that is difficult to put a finger on.

Simultaneously, there is an aspect of the soul, outside time, that has experienced and completed everything on the inner planes and on the Divine Journeys. This is a tricky concept and it isn’t really necessary to understand it as it wouldn’t influence the journey of the soul in any case.

The You reading this, in creation, is the extension of soul energy, that is in time. The aspect of your soul on the Divine Journeys, will not be necessarily aware of what is going on with the personality you in creation, as the light is so captivating there. What this aspect of soul Up there is missing out on though is experience of life in creation, and the slow frequency light down here, particularly the dark of the zeroth plane, and also, emotion. Souls come down here to experience emotion.

Souls and divine beings that stay in the Divine Journeys have no idea of what the grand adventure we call life is like down here in creation.

They miss out on the journey down, and they miss out on the journey up the planes and the experiences they gain in this Illusion. Souls with an aspect of themselves down here get to experience the many lifetimes as rock and metal with the heating, flowing, crushing, and erosion, and so on, while having only infinitesimal consciousness.

Then there are the many lifetimes in plant form in the many different environments. They grow, use physical light, put down roots (or live of other plants and sometimes creatures), they can be eaten. Open to the sky they experience weather and starlight. Those in the water experience those environments. They experience long or short lives, fire, drought and so on. With flowers and blossoms they irradiate scents, colour and energy. (From an energy point of view, plants have a fascinating existence.) The consciousness level is a somewhat greater than a rock or metal.

Still on the zeroth plane of consciousness, the soul has many lifetimes in animal form; as with worms, insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals. With each change of lifeform there is an incremental change in the level of consciousness. The form that a soul takes depends on the level of consciousness that needs to be experienced. A soul going through the many animal forms, and experiences a huge variety of conditions, and events that happen to them. They experience instincts and intelligence. They experience emotions (a scientist may disagree, but anyone who has spent time with animals or has a pet will know when an animal is happy or sad or scared, and so on). Animals experience being on their own and in other lives, living as part of a society or group. They eat, sometimes hunt, sometimes get eaten (alive!). Animals communicate.

Then come the sub-human lives that are a cross-over point to being human on the zeroth plane. In all this, the soul grows in consciousness, and stores the accumulation of experiences in part of itself.

As a human, lifetime after lifetime up until the top of the third plane of consciousness, the soul builds, karma, and then balances it or burns it off from then on up to the top of the sixth plane. As a human the soul gets to experience the full range of what it can mean to be a human being, from the darkest events to the most loving and light. The soul experiences life in a detached way, as it is still very much in the Divine Journeys, while the person down here will experience life through personality, spirit, and the accumulation of all those vast numbers of lifetimes that occurred from rock, plant, animal upwards. So people can be incredibly animalistic in their thinking and behaviour as their animal past comes to the forefront. This is particularly so in a human lifetime that has a leaning to the Dark Lodge and the negative dark, rather than a lifetime leaning to the light or Light Lodge. Part of spirituality is diminishing or transforming the old heritage that is rather like very old baggage.

Meditation and doses of light really help here. However, to really appreciate what the light is like, and what Divine energies are like, being in the muck an the mud, and the pain and struggle that happens in creation, provides the contrast. Sometimes to know what something is like you need to experience the opposite. It also provides the crucible through which a soul gains the experience and learning, in the end, transforms into its full beauty, and with quite a story to tell back on the Divine Journeys.

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.